Kylie Chan - Heaven to Wudang

‘Inside?’ Tom said.

‘Inside your head,’ I said. ‘He’ll flip through your thoughts and memories. It’s an excellent way to see exactly what makes someone tick, but an unfortunate side effect is that they see everything else as well. You can’t hide anything from them. You can trust LK to keep everything in confidence, but it’s still up to you.’

‘Dad?’ Tom said.

Ben nodded. ‘They might as well, son.’

‘They’ll see, Dad.’

Ben’s expression darkened. ‘And I don’t think they’ll be surprised. I’m not surprised myself any more. It’s worth it if they can help you.’

Tom turned to LK. ‘If you promise you won’t share anything you see in me, you can do it.’

‘I’ll only share things that are directly related to your demon nature,’ LK said. ‘Other than that, you can trust me.’

He rose and moved to stand behind Tom. Tom stood up, but LK stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. ‘Sit, relax. This won’t hurt a bit.’

Tom sat back down and LK put his hands on either side of Tom’s head, then raised his own face and closed his eyes, concentrating. Tom stiffened then relaxed. They remained silent for a while, then both grimaced at the same time.

‘Sorry,’ LK said. He released Tom’s head, sat back down and scribbled some more notes.

Ben and Tom shared a look, and Tom shrugged.

What do you think they’re hiding? the stone said. I asked LK and he wouldn’t tell me.

Of course he won’t , I said. He gave his word. My guess is that she abused them and Ben’s ashamed that he didn’t protect his child from her.

I see , the stone said. What a horrible situation.

LK pushed the notepad away. ‘Go back to the apartment you rented in Hong Kong,’ he said to Ben and Tom. He turned to me. ‘Ma’am, provide them with an escort. It’s quite likely that Kitty knows what’s happened and may have an ambush set up for them.’ He turned back to Ben and Tom. ‘Gather all your belongings; you won’t be going back there ever again. Then I suggest we find you a safe house somewhere on the Earthly, but well hidden. The Celestial is too dangerous for Tom. If he loses control over his demon nature he would be destroyed.’ He shrugged. ‘Perhaps one of the Follies?’

‘The Follies are deserted, and human residents are returning; it would be too risky,’ I said. ‘How about one of the Twelve Villages?’

‘Put them with the Rats,’ LK said. ‘They’d love to study Tom; it will open a whole new area of exploration for them.’

‘Yeah,’ I said. ‘It might even inspire them to extend their intelligence beyond China’s borders.’

‘Rats?’ Ben said.

‘We have twelve villages in different parts of Asia, named for the twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac,’ I said. ‘They aren’t real rats, they’re just people, and they specialise in intelligence gathering.’

‘They’re our spies,’ LK said. ‘They’re based in Macau, in an urban area even though we call it a village. You’ll be safe amongst the Rats; they have advanced security measures.’

Tell LK I’m hoping he’s absolutely sure this kid isn’t a plant , I said to the stone.

That’s why I’m putting him with the Rats, LK said. They’ll handle him if he is. They’ll be on their guard and actually hoping that he’s one of these advanced copies.

‘Very well,’ I said. ‘LK, arrange the escort for the trip to the apartment, and I’ll contact Rat Village and make the arrangements from this end.’ I gestured towards the plates of Chinese vegetarian food that the demons had made for us, which had gone cold while we’d been talking. ‘I’ll have someone warm this up for us.’

A demon entered, bowed to us, and took a few of the plates off the table. Another demon took the teapot to fill it with fresh hot water.

‘No chance of anything non-vegetarian, ma’am?’ Ronnie said wistfully.

‘Not on the Mountain, sorry,’ I said.

‘Do you mind sharing the info you just gathered?’ Ronnie asked LK.

‘Link up, I’ll tell you,’ LK said. They concentrated on each other and went quiet.

‘So, tell me what kind of work you were doing while you were living here in Asia,’ I said to Ben.

‘I’m an engineer, aircraft systems,’ he said. ‘So I never had difficulty finding work anywhere we went —’

Simone appeared at the end of the room holding a large, black, flapping tortoise that sprayed muddy water in a wide arc with every movement.

‘Emma, come up to the compound,’ she said. ‘I’ve found Daddy!’

‘John?’ I asked the turtle.

Simone was having trouble holding the struggling creature. ‘It doesn’t have any intelligence, it’s just the animal.’

‘Are you sure —’

‘I know my own father!’ she said. ‘Now what do I do with him?’

‘Meet me at the entrance to the Grotto,’ I said.

‘Oh, good idea,’ she said, and disappeared.

‘That was her father?’ Ben said. ‘I thought my wife was strange.’

‘It gets better, I’m engaged to it.’ I rose. ‘I’d better head back up, she’ll be waiting for me. Wait here for your escort, and I’ll see you later when things have settled down.’

‘I’ll take it from here,’ LK said. He picked up his chopsticks. ‘Now, let’s eat!’

‘If you don’t mind, Emma,’ Ronnie said, ‘I’ll go find something a little more —’

‘Carnivorous,’ I said. ‘I’ll see you later.’

He saluted me and disappeared.

‘Later, guys,’ I said, and went out to jog up the winding trail that led back into the Mountain.

Simone was standing outside the entrance to the Grotto, still holding the struggling turtle. ‘I forgot you can’t travel. His panic is easing but he’s still fighting me.’

The Grotto entrance was a rock face on the hillside behind the Armoury, a plain grey wall of stone.

‘Have you tried talking to him?’ I said, putting my hand on the latch to make the wall disappear. The stone stairs down into the Grotto became visible as the rock faded.

‘Yes, he’s not replying. All that stuff with you and the Demon King and the demon essence must have really taken it out of him,’ she said.

We started carefully down the steep stairs into the darkness.

‘Where was he?’ I said.

‘Hanoi. There were reports of a giant tortoise that used to live in a lake there centuries ago — that it had returned. I had a free period so I wandered down there. God, it stinks — it’s so polluted — but there he was, large as life. I couldn’t believe it.’

‘Can you do a light while you hold him?’ I said.

She struggled to hold the tortoise with one arm around its shell, then made a ball of chi energy that floated to light the tunnel around us. ‘Sorry, forgot you can’t see in the dark.’

She hefted the tortoise in both arms again and we continued down. As we headed deeper into the Grotto, the air became colder. Condensation ran down the walls, making the steps slippery.

After two hundred metres, our breath formed fog and the air was still and bitterly cold. I jumped down the steps, trying to move faster to warm myself up. The tunnel opened into the cavern of the Grotto, so huge its walls and ceiling were invisible in the distance. The water before us shimmered in Simone’s light. We stood on a ten-metre-wide ledge that jutted five metres into the underground lake. The lake itself was a kilometre long, two kilometres across and two kilometres deep, plunging into the core of the Mountain and making its centre water — fitting for the Xuan Wu.

The lake’s fish came to the ledge, curious. They were three metres long, with white bodies and pink, lilac and blue fins, glowing with bioluminescence. One of them stuck its head out of the water and made gasping movements with its mouth, then spoke telepathically to us.